Carpenter Works Hard, But He’s No Volunteer Tennessee Had Receiver In Hand Before Price Intercepted

As Mike Price steered his rental car northwest from Boise one lonely night five years ago, Chad Carpenter seemed destined for Tennessee.

By the time Washington State’s football coach left Carpenter’s home in western Idaho, however, the pride of tiny Weiser was coming to Washington State.

“I was on the road recruiting someplace and I hadn’t had a home visit yet to his house,” Price recalled Wednesday night. “One of my assistants called up and said it looked like Chad was going to Tennessee.

“I said, ‘What?!? Nobody from Weiser, Idaho, whose folks went to the University of Idaho in Moscow, is going pass up a chance to at least visit Washington State.”

So Price called Carpenter’s father, hoping he’d get Chad to reconsider. Thanks, but no thanks, Price was told.

Facing third-and-long, the coach decided to go deep.

“I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell ya what. I’m at the airport right now. I’m getting my ticket changed and I’m flying to Weiser and I’ll be there tonight to see you,”’ Price said.

Within hours, Carpenter had relented, although turning his back on the Volunteers wasn’t easy.

His high school coach had been pushing Tennessee, a perennial power, while WSU was coming off a 3-8 season.

“And my coach was like, ‘You want to look at a coach that’s gonna be there for your full five years,”’ Carpenter said, savoring the irony. “And he said, ‘Johnny Majors will be at Tennessee for five years and Mike Price probably won’t be around.’

“It’s funny now that Majors was gone after like two years and Coach Price has been here for five and will probably be here for another 20.”

Carpenter is one of the better receivers in the Pacific-10 Conference, his 41 catches ranking second to the 51 of Cal’s Bobby Shaw.

A natural athlete, Carpenter was never a natural receiver. But he’s always been a practice freak, and that’s been the difference, receivers coach Mike Levenseller believes.

“As a freshman, the very first day of two-a-day practice, I came in at 6:30 a.m.,” Levenseller said, “and I’m walking into the gym and there’s a fully dressed, in-his-uniform, helmet-on, playing-catch Chad Carpenter. Practice isn’t until 9. That kind of set the tone for the rest of his career.”

Hours in the weight room have made him the strongest receiver in school history - Carpenter owns four of six WSU strength records at the position - and the 6-foot, 204-pound senior can be unrelenting.

“During two-a-days this year, Coach Price just gave me an ultimatum - do not let him in there,” Levenseller said. “He’s like a damn horse - he’ll run himself right into the ground.”

Carpenter’s tenacity is a product of his roots. He graduated from high school with a degree in toughness.

“We hit four days a week and got one day off to rest,” said Carpenter. “I was quarterback and I played receiver, but I had to block on all the sweeps.”

None of that meant anything when Carpenter arrived at WSU, where defensive backs like Greg Burns and Torey Hunter were offering free lessons in intimidation.

“By the time he was a senior, he pretty much knew if he could accomplish a lot of things in practice, he was going to have it pretty easy during the season,” said Hunter, who finished playing in 1994.

These days, Carpenter hands out most of the beatings.

After making five catches against UCLA last week, Carpenter heads into Saturday’s game at Stanford needing just six more to earn a spot among WSU’s 10 most prolific receivers. Levenseller (1975-77) ranks sixth with 121 catches, while Ed Barker (1950-52) is 10th with 106.

“Chad’s the type of guy that won’t be appreciated until he’s gone,” Levenseller said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CARPENTER MEASURES UP Career statistics for Washington State receiver Chad Carpenter: Year Catches Yards Avg. TD 1996* 41 536 13.1 8 1995 32 415 13.0 2 1994 25 352 14.1 1 1993 3 28 9.3 0 Totals 101 1331 13.2 11 * two games remaining